Thursday, March 3, 2016

Questions on the NBN I'd like to see asked in Parliament Question Time, or posed directly to Turnbull and his Ministers by Mainstream Media:

Cost to the Taxpayer:

What is the cost to taxpayer, as shown in a Budget line-item, of the NBN so far?

What is the expected on-Budget cost to taxpayers of the MTM-NBN when fully rolled out and upgraded to the promised levels already made? Is that 2020 or later?

Quality of NBN Investment:

Since when is an IRR of 2.7%-3.5% better for an investment than 7.1%?

Just what are the nominal & CPI-adjusted monetary values of each investment?

Despite multiple attempts, the Liberals have yet to offer any convincing evidence that the 2013 Business Plan was deeply flawed. It was well ahead of all its financial milestones, whereas the Turnbull legacy is a litany of successive upwards revisions, to around double the number taken to the 2013 election.

That not only takes the funding pressure off the Government and hence taxpayer, it actively transfers or shares Risk with willing investors and simultaneously provides an important financial sector with a perfectly targeted investment vehicle. They are patient investors looking for guaranteed returns and stable, dependable growth businesses.

Rollout Preferences:

Why haven't any of the ~10 M affected subscribers been offered the option to contribute directly to the increased costs of Fibre vs HFC or Copper Pair/VDSL2? Even on the inflated and manipulated MTM figures, the CapEx (not Peak Funding, the real cost), per line is $2,300 for FTTN and $4,400 for Full Fibre.(Table 8: CPP by technology, page 67)
Why haven't subscribers been given the option to pay $1,250 towards Full Fibre, repaid over 3-5 years?

Requiring people to put their hands in their own pockets conclusively demonstrates "value in use" and their "willingness to pay". We don't have to take anyone's word for it.

At a stroke, this would remove all the future Copper service upgrades, reduce the Capital Requirement, provide a commercially significant priority order for rollout and make the 65% of taxpayer-voters who want Real Broadband very happy.